Moral superiority in the pink.

To the guileless eye, that might look like me hard at work mixing up a delicious birthday cake for M, but it is, in fact, me concocting an antidote for hubristic blunders. At least I am aware that I'll need nothing less than a ton of sugar for that. You see, I feel as though I am something of a semi-vegan cake baking master. I have an impeccable record for creating the most amazing semi-vegan birthday cakes ever. The past two years I have amazed M with my delectable 3-layer birthday cakes, though I suppose I should give a teensy bit of credit to the Grit, for having published their superlative semi-vegan cake recipes in the beloved-by-me Grit Cookbook. This year, however, my moral superiority got the best of me. I decided that semi-vegan just wasn't going to cut it. I wanted total vegan. Total vegan, it turns out, means no cream cheese or butter--the two offending ingredients in the Grit's frosting recipe. So I did a few minutes' worth of research and came up with an all new, all vegan birthday cake recipe--one that called for such replacements for cream cheese and butter as agar and arrowroot. Uh, okay. That *seems* like it might be... delicious?



Turns out that while agar is capable of transforming cocoa powder and a select other vegan ingredients into a really interesting gelatinous texture, it is not palatable at all. Especially once it is pureed into a spreadable, frosting-like consistency (I spared you photos of this mess). It doesn't come anywhere CLOSE to successfully imitating frosting. And, so, despite my initial consideration of perhaps moving one step closer to transitioning from vegetarianism to veganism, before I knew what was happening, I had replaced the crap vegan cake with this:



Mmmm... glorious, glorious 3-layer Dark Chocolate (vegan) Cake with Cream Cheese (semi-vegan) Frosting. Cream! Cheese! Butter! Get in my cake! And so, in the end, M had another happy semi-vegan birthday, and I will continue for the time being to be content with being a vegetarian, who, on occasion, consumes animal by-products.



Now, about my continued fascination and attraction to pink... I continue to maintain that it has nothing to do with any holidays that might begin with a "V" and end with "-alintine's Day". I'd rather like to believe, instead, that it has to do with being inspired by--



--the best movie ever.

And, speaking of sugary pink things, did you think I'd make you suffer through another one of my pontifications without including at least a little bit of knitting?



It seems that my happy, sugary-sweet sock has acquired a new, not-so-happy demeanor in the form of a huge, red, angry gash--



--wait, make that TWO angry gashes! Even my "happy on the needles" socks refuse to be cooperatively happy! Despite the pooling, though, I still really love these socks. And, look, I have successfully maneuvered the short-row heel! Now that's what I call sweet success! (or, just a really, REALLY bad pun).

Have a great Sunday, all!

In which Bitter McAngry knits something sweet.

Acting upon the sage advice of many of those that left me such helpful and appreciated comments on my debacle-ridden week (y'all know who you are, :::thanks!!:::), I laid the problem knit aside and found myself a good, cheerful distraction. I am still wrestling with whether to rip, leave, or ladder down to the mistake on my rib and cable deal. I am leaning toward just leaving it. I tried to ladder down a few rows and experiment with trying to fix just that rib, but, well, a combination of being a relatively unsavvy amateur knitter and being full of rage at the world at the moment, the experimenting didn't result in any miraculous fixes. I could definitely perform the appropriate surgery if I were fixing dropped stitches or plain knit or purl stitches, but backtracking from plain rib to twisted rib is a wee bit more than a mind full of pressing academic concerns can take at the moment. Thus, a new project has appeared in the place of the ornery one.



Enter this fantastic little bundle. I bought this on a whim from Hello Yarn not too long ago, with some bizzarro predilection for the sweet-and-cheery. It doesn't happen often. If it ain't gray or muted, it ain't going on my needles. I don't know what inspired me to want this particular handpainted beauty... I am firmly and categorically refuting any admission that it might be because I've been inspired by some upcoming holiday that I happen to find entirely fatuous. Perhaps I just needed a little happy on my needles. And, really, I feel like this has done the trick.



And what's more, I have learned a new skill! The picot edge. Wow, these socks are dripping saccharine. How entirely out of character for me, but so delightful! I'm using Adrian's Simple Sock pattern that came free with the yarn. This pattern is great for me, because not only have I had to learn how to do a picot edge, but I'll also be introduced to the short-row heel, which I've not yet attempted. One question: are the sweet little picot teeth supposed to look that much like coffee beans?



I'm also enjoying the irony of the pattern title. Simple Sock. The picot edge wasn't exactly the most simple thing I've done, and I'll definitely need more practice to perfect my method. This first try of mine isn't exactly of the unflared, streamlined variety, but it'll do for a first try.

As for the crapademics fiasco, while things have not been definitively resolved, it is looking like I'll be able to reschedule my exams for the last few weeks of August and my orals for the first week in September. Now, if I can just shake off this sense of failure... wait... wait... looking at my sweet saccharine socks... done!